North Spain - Day 1: Zaragosa, San Sebastian

North Spain – Day 1:

Two green Renault Megane’s, an endorsement on the rental slip that I could drive with my Singapore license, and we were off – 8 of us, mostly exchange students, to North Spain. For probably the first time ever, I dint even know how to pronounce the names of the towns we planned to visit over the next two or even three days. For the first time ever definitely, none of us in the car knew exactly where we were going to halt for the night, and in which hotel. For the first time ever, we did not even know if we might be in the same country the next day! All the same it was a trip I was looking forward to… why I don’t know even today!

Our first halt was Zaragosa, a beautiful town along the river Ebro. Across the bridge from the road leading to the city, we could see the magnificent Basilica of Our Lady, and behind that, the city, which was also called Saragossa, the capital of the Aragon community of Spain. Spain, although a single country, has several internal divisions among its people such as the Catalans, the Aragons, the Basques, etc. The Basilica was a classic example of the Mudejar architecture of the Aragons, a world heritage site. A short walk into the Basilica revealed a design, which I later realized I would be seeing repeatedly in several churches and cathedrals across Spain. There was a central altar, with a hall for conducting mass, with huge ceilings, with either sculptures or paintings or painted glass windows.

Our four-hour drive to San Sebastian proved to be a very interesting one. There was a hill, atop which a huge black hoarding of a bull attracted our attention from more than a kilometer away. For miles and miles thereafter, there were hills with a huge number of windmills for as far as the eye could see. As we got closer to San Sebastian after dusk, the roads got narrow and windy and we drove through several long tunnels before we reached the Basque town, the capital city of the Gipuzkoa province, also known as Donostia. San Sebastian, on the river Urumea, is a coastal town on the northern coast of Spain south of the Bay of Biscay between Spain and the British Isles. The La Concha’s bay and beach soon gave way to a small pier and the Urgull hill, atop which stood a giant statue of Jesus, as if overlooking the bay and the town.

Exploration for a restaurant took us through Parte Vieja, or the ‘old city’, which I later realized was another common feature of any Spanish town with a long history. The old city area of any town is essentially a labyrinth of streets with no specific pattern. It is very easy to get lost in these streets even with a good map. The labyrinths could have several ‘plaça’s in them. A plaça is a square area from which several streets could branch off. The square area would house several bars and restaurants, and have a central pillar with a sculpture, a statue, a church or a cathedral.

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